Mergers and acquisitions are a fact of business in the financial sector. Companies collaborate, see opportunity and merge into something entirely different all the time. Sometimes this is a weaker company with shaky financials being taken over, and sometimes it is a collaboration of opportunity that makes both companies stronger. In recent news as reported by PR newswire, EnTrust and Permal Group have been working their way through a merger agreement that is soon to be finalized. These two companies alone are powerhouses in alternative asset management. As a combined force they will become the largest alternative asset management firm. The Chairman will be Gregg Hymowitz, founder of EnTrust Capital. This merger will be a very positive move for both companies. To begin with there will be significant cost savings. These savings will be to the tune of about 35-40 million dollars a year. This merger also brings the brightest talents and a global reach to the combined company. Clients will also enjoy many perks from the two companies becoming one. To start with, they will have a wider base of instruments to choose from when investing their money. There will be more than 150 investment opportunities using more than 18 varying strategies. The merger will bring about the merging of two companies worth of employees. This will give every client the ability to have a global reach and get more out of their money. The collaboration of employees will also mean that service can be more intensely customized. This will allow for products and services to evolve quicker to meet client needs. This merger is seen as an...

The on-line investment portal Cadre has recently succeeded in raising an additional 50 million dollars in its second funding round. Its first round funding netted it over 18 million making the total amount of money raised at over 68 million dollars. With this amount, Cadre, along with its impressive resume of partners, has positioned itself as the go-to real estate investment vehicle for institutions, endowments, and high net worth individuals. Launched by Jared and Joshua Kushner, this vehicle’s main goal is to allow institutional investors and other qualified parties to put their money into specific real estate deals rather than to limit their choice only to group funds or real estate investment trusts. The reason for this is that these grouped investments just won’t allow the kinds of high returns available with specific individual real estate deals. Who are the principals that started and now run Cadre and what are their backgrounds? The Kushner brothers, Jared and Josh, are leaders in the fields of technology and real estate investing. Jared Kushner is the principal owner of Kushner Properties, a real estate holding and development company while Josh Kushner is the creator and Managing Partner of the investment firm Thrive Capital. He is also the co-developer of Oscar Insurance a new technology grounded insurance company based in New York. The two brothers together with their colleague Ryan Williams have now created and are principally behind the funding of real estate investment platform Cadre. Its acting CEO, Ryan Williams has a background in real estate private equity with the Blackstone Group and also with Goldman Sachs. At Goldman, he worked in...